The present invention relates to a device, for use with a closure magazine of a closing or capping machine, for introducing closures or caps into a closure channel from a chamber that accommodates a plurality of such closures, with the closures being crown corks of ferromagnetic material and having a cap-like shape with a closed side and an open side, and with the closures being conducted in the closure channel in a successive manner and in single file.
Various types of closure magazines for crown corks or similar closures are known for use with closing or capping machines. In the simplest case, such a closure magazine has a magazine chamber that is adjoined by a closure channel that, as a closure supply channel, leads to a transfer station at which the closures are transferred to closing elements and/or to the containers that are to be capped. In this connection, the closure channel has an essentially rectangular cross-sectional configuration that is adapted to the shape and size of the closures in such a way that all of the closures in the closure channel are inherently oriented such that their central axes are disposed perpendicular to the axis of the closure channel, and the open or closed sides of the closures are disposed adjacent to the respectively larger cross-sectional sides of the closure channel. The closure channel is furthermore provided with a turnover zone where those closures that do not have the correct orientation with respect to their open or closed sides are turned over.
To accommodate higher outputs, the closure magazine, in addition to the magazine chamber, frequently has a collection chamber in which the closures are conveyed via a closure channel that is embodied as a turnover channel, so t hat all of the closures in the collection chamber already have the correct orientation with respect to their open and closed sides. Adjoining the collection chamber is then the closure channel, which is embodied as a feed channel.
Within the context of the present invention, both the magazine chamber as well as the collection chamber are also designated as "chamber".
A device of the aforementioned general type is known (DE-PS 30 49 525, U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,812). With this known device, the magazine chamber is formed by the interior of a fixed drum, the axis of which is oriented in the vertical direction. Disposed in the drum is a disk that can be driven so as to rotate about the vertical drum axis; this disk forms the base of the magazine chamber, and its rim portion extends into an extension that is formed at the periphery of the drum and extends outwardly radially relative to the vertical drum axis, so that at this location an annular channel is formed between the upper side of the disk and a ring that forms this extension. The annular channel surrounds the vertical drum axis and is open in a radially inward direction; at the transition, a horizontal portion of the closure channel leads tangentially away from the annular channel. A number of permanent magnets are provided at the periphery of the disk. These permanent magnets form a magnetic field that extends around the vertical axis of the disk or drum; by means of this magnetic field, the closures are conveyed out of the magazine chamber and into the closure channel. In this connection, the disk forms a horizontal abutment and guide surface for the open or closed side of the closure, with the abutment surface being disposed in a plane that extends perpendicular to the axis about which the magnetic field is moved, i.e. about which the permanent magnets rotate.
The intention of this known device is that due to the rotating disk, the closures will be moved into the annular channel by centrifugal force. This has serious drawbacks in that the closures can jam against and block one another not only in the region of this annular channel but rather in particular also at the transition to the closure channel. A further drawback of the known device is that a relatively high abrasion of the closures as well as a relatively loud operation results.
It is therefore a object of the present invention to improve the device of the aforementioned general type in such a way that although a straightforward construction is provided, the device will have a considerably improved mode of operation as well as an improved operational reliability.